IU sophomore forward Devin Davis will return to school for the second semester which begins Jan. 12, 2015, IU Coach Tom Crean said Friday.
There still remains no timetable for Davis’ return to the court, but a return to the classroom is one step closer to returning to a more normal life.
Davis was hospitalized in serious condition after being struck by a car driven by freshman forward Emmitt Holt in the early hours of Nov. 1. Davis suffered a “traumatic brain injury” and was transferred to Indianapolis as an outpatient on Nov. 19 to continue his rehabilitation closer to home.
In the weeks since the accident, Davis has become a regular in Bloomington, watching several IU games from behind the bench as he continues his rehab.
Crean has been asked a few times about the possibility of redshirting Davis, but he again said Friday that no decision on that has been made.
"It's really having a plan for either way, which we've had for some time now," Crean said. “Whether he was going to be able to come back and play, whether he was not going to be able to come back and play. If he can’t play, how much school can he have? We want to be set for whatever the doctors feel is the best situation.”
Crean said that he would not rule out the possibility of Davis returning to the court during the Big Ten season, but that choice will remain with Davis.
“That becomes a personal choice,” Crean said. “There’s never been a destination date, in my mind. There’s never been a target date. And I don’t think there’s been one in his (mind). The bottom line is, he would like to have been healthy enough to play. Would he have liked to play by now? Probably. But the whole thing with him is, ‘Let’s not be in a rush.’”
Although there is no rush to get Davis on the floor, he has been around the team increasingly more in recent weeks.
Freshman guard James Blackmon Jr. said Davis has spoken with the team, giving them advice and trying to help individual players improve.
“It’s been great to have him back,” Blackmon Jr. said. “He’s like our bother. Every one of us, he’s like our brother. He’s talked to me a lot about things I need to work on and he’s done the same for everyone else, too. Even though he’s not playing, he’s still been a big part of our success.”
So for now, Davis will continue to recover. A return to school won’t return everything to normal just yet, but it continues to be steps in the right direction.
“As far as anytime looking at him being on the court, nobody sees that right now,” Crean said. “As far as him being able to get better every day, get his physical strength and stamina up, not to mention what he needs to do with his therapy, that's the most important.”
Crean open to expanding Crossroads Classic
What started out as an idea to resurrect the old Hoosier Classic has grown into the now-annual Crossroads Classic between IU, Purdue, Notre Dame and Butler, but why stop there?
Crean said he enjoys the classic and that has shown in the response from the fans in attendance and the schools agreeing to extensions. IU will be committed to the Crossroads Classic through 2019, but Crean said he’d be open to adding more teams to the event and possibly making it a two-day tournament.
“There’s a lot of great basketball in the state of Indiana,” Crean said. “Maybe the day comes (where) it’s not only the Division I teams in the state, but maybe there’s Marion or DePauw, Wabash, somebody like that, and they get a chance to play. I’m not trying to play promoter, schedule maker, but it’s a great state.”
By Crean’s logic, the more teams that play mean more people will be watching. More attention could mean growing the Crossroads Classic into one of the nation’s larger in-season tournaments.
But for now, IU will stay focused on the task ahead. That means playing Butler on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in a matchup of a pair of 8-2 teams.
“But the bottom line is every time you’re in it, you’re playing a very tough opponent,” Crean said. “That’s what’s most important. That’s what’s most challenging.”
